Robert Tucknott is a member of an exclusive group of East Bay aviators, a pilot who stands at the ready if called into service by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

For the past 15 years, Tucknott has served as a volunteer member of the sheriff’s Air Squadron, a unit that provides disaster relief support, conducts search-and-rescue operations and performs administrative flights for the sheriff’s office.

As a squadron member, Tucknott has gone on dozens of missions, using his single-engine Cessna 182 to fly detectives to interviews throughout the state and to take Sheriff Charles Plummer to business meetings.

Tucknott, a Pleasanton resident and an electrical contractor by trade, said he joined the squadron because he thought it was a good way to serve the public.

“You feel good that you’ve done something worthwhile when you complete a mission,” he said. “Plus, I get to use my airplane. I just like flying.”

The 35-volunteer squadron was formed in 1947 and currently is composed of 27 pilots and eight dedicated observers, said Matthew Weisman, the volunteer captain assigned to the squadron.

The squadron maintains two emergency preparedness hangars — one at the Hayward Executive Airport and the other at the Livermore Municipal Airport. Both hangars are equipped with emergency generators, radio communication equipment, computers, phones, and enough food and water to sustain a ground crew of four for a week.

Because of the volunteers, the sheriff’s office has ready access to a helicopter, 13 fixed-wing airplanes and a business jet.

“It means the department has someone else providing the $10 million-plus in assets and manpower,” Weisman said. “If you add it up, its worth several hundred-thousand dollars a year. This is perhaps the most economic way to get a very flexible support system.”

Not only does the squadron perform administrative flights for detectives and the sheriff, along with transportingevidence, it also conducts emergency air surveillance and assists in search-and-rescue operations.

Steve Radcliffe, a 58-year-old Livermore resident and owner of a flight school, joined the squadron 11 years ago. He also owns a Cessna 182.

Over the years, he has flown investigators to prisons throughout the state for inmate interviews. Radcliffe and Tucknott were even paired together during a search-and-rescue operation.

“It’s really positive,” Radcliffe said. “You get the opportunity to help the sheriff’s office. Having airplanes is pretty expensive for the sheriff, so this is really good for him.”

The squadron meets monthly at the Alameda County Regional Training Center in Dublin and is continuously involved in training drills or competitions geared

toward improving its operation.

But because of a fear of a possible terrorist attack, the squadron is taking on a more critical role these days.

Capt. Rocky Medeiros, the commanding officer of the state Office of Homeland Security, said the squadron is being equipped with digital cameras and GPS equipment that it will use to collect data from areas throughout both Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The data, Medeiros said, will help his agency develop a more thorough response plan for a terrorist attack or natural disasters.

More in News

Austin Evers, executive director of the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, whose record requests sparked the White House discovery, said it strained credulity that Trump's daughter did not know that government officials should not use private emails for official business.

Click here if you are unable to view this gallery on a mobile device.Almost immediately after the Camp Fire roared through the town of Paradise, destroying most of the homes and businesses of the 26,000 people who lived there, evacuees began pitching tents in the parking lot of Walmart, down the hill in Chico.It also became a place for people...

The White House's move to restore Acosta's pass, announced in a letter to the news network, appeared to be a capitulation to CNN in its brief legal fight against the administration. White House officials had suspended Acosta's White House press pass following a contentious news conference on Nov. 7, prompting CNN to sue last week to force the administration to...